Pierce Brosnan biography

The Foreigner

"I never saw myself as a debonair leading man. I always saw myself as this hesitant actor," says this native of Navan, County Meath, Ireland. But others have always seen him differently.

The tall (6' 1") leading man began his career on the London stage in 1976 and made his British film debut in 1980. But it was a brief visit to America in 1982 that changed his life forever when an audition led to him being cast as the lead role in TV's Remington Steele.

Although the series was canceled in 1986, Brosnan, the first choice to take over from Roger Moore as James Bond, wasn't allowed to do so when the network revived the series and used a clause in his contract to make him stay with the show.

But two years later, when Timothy Dalton didn't pan out as Bond, Brosnan was free to take on the role and turn the James Bond movie series back into an incredibly successful and profitable exercise.

"I haven't become so sick that I think I am Bond," says Brosnan. "But when the cameras roll and I'm pretending to be this character, then...it's like I'm 007. But I've got a healthy outlook on who I am and what I'm about."

Tragedy struck Brosnan in on December 28, 1991, after his wife, Cassandra Harris, died after a long bout with cancer. The couple had one child, Sean. Although Brosnan has since married actress Keely Shaye Smith, with whom he has two sons, he says about his first wife: "Cassie has made me the man I am, the actor I am, the father I am. She's forever embedded in every fiber of my being."